Comments on: Domestic violence: Is it grounds for divorce?

By: REG

REG — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 07:36:26 +0000

74,
There is nothing excellent at all about what you have said. We don’t often get to see our marriage bed defiled, as the adulterers lie and hide to keep the truth from us. What an ignorant notion.

What bible are you reading? God hates putting away, not divorce. One may put away his/her spouse only for adultery.
We are never given reasons for divorce, it only needs to be legal.
God left the reasons for divorce, (heaven forbid) up to the individuals!!!!!

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By: SteveG

SteveG — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:24:14 +0000

So if the husband beats up the wife every day but doesn’t have sex with another woman, she’s never free to find a husband who doesn’t beat her, Exsulent?

What a repellent “loving” God you have there.

Luckily for God, I don’t believe that he is so cruel. Some of his so-called followers, though, wow.

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By: Exsulent

Exsulent — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 05:39:44 +0000

The pastor is absolutely right. God has said clearly that He sanctions divorce on only two grounds: abandonment + marital unfaithfulness.

But I hope the pastor has a follow-up lesson (on some upcoming pastor’s training retreat weekend, perhaps) on the touchy subject of the ADULTERY sanctioned by every pastor in America who performs the wedding ceremony of someone who has un-biblically divorced his or her spouse.

The bible is clear: except a person is abandoned or has seen his marriage bed violated by his/her spouse, should that person “re-marry” they are guilty of ADULTERY. And there will be no adulterers in heaven.

God help the “pastor” who HELPS his congregant into the eternal fires of hell.

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By: REG

REG — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:12:41 +0000

68-Arcadia
Should a Christian, a SAINT, rather, (sorry, I had to change the word from preacher to saint from your question) advocate divorce? Absolutely, with discernment, support should be given for put away spouses to get legal divorces. And then, we need to move past our obsession with diagnosing marriages and think that we know enough to judge.

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By: REG

REG — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:11:27 +0000

MUMSEE
I don’t equate biblical shepherding with the professional pastor image that we experience today.

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By: REG

REG — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:56:55 +0000

70-
we have to hear it from the pulpit or we don’t have permission, in our minds, anyway, to do it….

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By: mumsee

mumsee — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:56:49 +0000

Makes you wonder why God calls some to be pastor’s (shepherds), huh? Maybe He did not know what He was talking about. Yes, ideally, we would all be walking with God and attuned to Him. Since He knew we were not there yet, He designed it so we could help each other. Pastor is one of those helps. Not that the pastor knows all, but he should be making it a matter of study and should be interested in helping the flock to keep safe from the enemy.

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By: REG

REG — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:18:35 +0000

680
What does the preacher have to do with it?
Do we have to have a preacher’s approval??
Why is it that we somehow expect a preacher to represent all of reality from a pulpit? This notion is laughable to me.

Would it be enough if God’s children, the saints, simply just understood his word and could encourage each other with it?

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By: arcadia

arcadia — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:59:41 +0000

Reg: God was telling men to play by the rules, stop being lazy/abusive, mistreating/ignoring your wife, and give your wife a legal divorce so she can be married successfully.

So should the preacher be advocating and urging a divorce?

(By the way, I certainly don’t agree with the implication that it is entirely the husband’s decision).

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By: SteveG

SteveG — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:09:25 +0000

JBH: “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” Matthew 5:31-32

Interesting though, that the man can divorce his wife on the grounds of adultery, but Jesus says nothing about a wife being able to divorce her husband for the same reason. In fact by saying “whoever” when he clearly means men only, he’s reflecting the patriarchial society of the time.

Is that a rule you also want to enforce today? You might have a hard time finding Biblical support for a woman-initiated divorce on any grounds.

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